The members of the 12 Dutch provincial councils will this afternoon elect the 75 members of the upper house of parliament and the ruling coalition is set to lose its fragile majority.

Since the previous election, the VVD and Labour parties have relied on the help of the Liberal democratic party D66 and two small religious parties to ensure controversial legislation gets passed in the senate.

But pundits say the five parties are likely to win only 36 or 37 senate seats, and they need 38.  Last week the three parties, known as the ‘friendly opposition’ pulled out of talks on next year’s spending plans saying there was no point without a majority of seats in the senate.

Behind the scenes the political horse-trading is under way in an effort to scrape up the remaining votes, broadcaster Nos reports. The VVD, for example, is trying to persuade the regional parties who do not have senate candidates, to support its list of potential senators.